implants - the journal of oral implantology UK Edition

I 39implants1_2012 business_ marketing I • Respects you and other team members—often they are respectful to the clinical team but not to the office staff • Listens to your clinical advice and then makes an informed decision • Attends all maintenance and hygiene ap- pointments as prescribed • Smells nice and knows which end of a tooth- brush to use and actually uses it! Just ask your existing patient base and as you slowly weed out the subprime ones you will eventually be left with a majority of ideal pa- tients. Among these, there will be some who fit all the criteria but only attend when they have a minicrisis. They are to all intents and purpos- es ideal because when they visit you they fol- low all your advice and become healthy again, although they usually disappear into the ether until another mini-crisis looms. Many clinicians find asking for referrals quite stressful and wonder what to do if the patient refuses. I have never had this happen, prob- ably thanks to a technique I have developed. It needs a bit of practice, but the following line (your version of it) tends to work, especially if it is delivered after a course of treatment: “You know what, Mrs Graham, I have really enjoyed taking care of you over the last few weeks. Our practice grows by recommendations from people like you. If you know any family members, friends or colleagues who need treat- ment I would love to take care of their dental needs. Here are a couple of my business cards.” I would empower all of the clinical team to have this conversation at the end of a course of treatment before the patient goes back into the re-care system. I also believe in the use of re- ferral cards (Fig 1). These should encompass the ethos of your practice and establish an emo- tional connection to what you believe in. _What do you do when they contact you? Often the first contact is asking for prices. It is impossible for you to know whether such prospective patients are just fishing around to compare prices and that is the way they judge dental services. Perhaps that is the only way they know to judge dentistry and it is your op- portunity to educate them that dentistry is not chosen on price alone. Does your team just re- ply back to them, do they try to call them and encourage them to visit your practice? Often the team replies to an e-mail, doesn’t get a response and then deletes the e-mail. What would your results be if you tried again a day later to contact them? If still no joy, perhaps contact them again in a week. “You recently contacted us and we have been unable to get in touch. I was just seeing whether your dental needs have already been taken care of. If not, we would love to have the opportunity to show you how Bow Lane is dif- ferent from other practices. Please get back in contact and we look forward to welcoming you to our practice.” I would then file their contact details and perhaps if they had asked about a specific service, say Invisalign, then make con- tact again when you have an offer or new in- formation on that particular service. _Online presence You don’t need an award-winning website, but can the type of patients you are trying to attract find you online? When they find you, is what they see attractive, giving them con- fidence in contacting you? Do you have many different ways for them to contact you? I have noticed recently more new patients contact- ing me via Facebook or Twitter. I think this is because dentists can seem inapproachable and hidden behind the reception team. They tend to ask a simple question and the conversation grows from that. I am in the middle of a €6,000 treatment plan on a patient from Vienna. He found me through Facebook and there were 24 e-mails over a two-month period until he started treatment. _How easy is it for a patient to have a con- versation with you (Fig 2)? Why should a patient be friends with your practice on Facebook or Twitter? People like to feel part of something, a community. Peo- ple like to talk, share stories and get access to unique information, whether it is hearing about something first or getting deals. Think about the newsletters you subscribe to, the people you follow on Twitter, etc. If they are always trying to sell something, you quickly get bored or find them inauthentic. No matter what the technology you are us- ing is, it is about a quality interaction with like- minded people. I get concerned when people Fig. 3